Storm
by sissyHIYAH
Summary: Dr. Odine reflects on crazy little Adel, back when she was a beauty that drove men mad.


_She vas beautiful once._

_You pigs have such a clumsy language. I'll never be able to make you understand just how lovely she vas. I once read dis book where the hero's eyes were compared to a sea after a storm. Yes, a sea after a storm is beautiful indeed, but the sea is nothing to the storm itself. Nothing at all, I tell you. _

_Adel was once this storm. _

_Do not laugh at me. I speak the truth._

_Do not laugh at her. _

_Oh...never laugh at her. _

_If you are vise, you vill never laugh at her. _

_You have no idea, no vay to see vhat she once...._

_Please, allow me to explain._

_Give me moment. _

_There was a myth, ya? A lovely voman, hair of flame and voice that echoed vater and time, cherished above all, beloved by a god, loved by one dat vould serve and protect her...but this voman vas proud, vain, foolish. She laughed vhen this god kneeled before her. Yes! The girl laughed at the god kneeling at her unvorthy feet! Can you imagine pride such as this? _

_Yes, it happened much as it does in the old tales. The god vas humiliated, so he...humbled the girl._

_Must you ask how he humbled her?_

_Perhaps it is best that ve say she forgot how to speak language of brook and meadow after this god humbled her. Ve shall leave it at that. Any more and you vill not believe the cruelty of the divine. _

_Do you understand yet? Do you understand Adel?_

_She vas great beauty, though humble beyond vords. Such perfect humility. You heard me call her a storm, ya? One must blink vhen lightning flashes and the heavens bellow, ya? Such it was when Adel smiled. I could not look at her vhen she smiled. Men from lands near and far sought to vin her hand, yet she had eyes for only one. _

_He vas...unvorthy._

_A pig. _

_He dared to touch her hand vhen she smiled at him. The brazen bastard did not even close his eyes as ve all did! He vould smile at her, then it vas if the sun and moon were one again vhen she vould smile for him! She had a...smile reserved only for him. _

_I vatched her, you see. I vould vait for her smiles and her looks, yet she vasted them on him. I vatched her alvays. Vaiting, alvays vaiting for her to smile at me the vay she smiled at him._

_She never did._

_Her pretty solider vent to var and she vaited for him. He vould send her gifts sometimes, bracelets and rings, charms and perfumes, yet her smiles grew fewer and fewer as she vaited longer and longer for him. _

_Her arms were heavy vith gold by the time she learned he vas never returning to her._

_She vore his gold, gold von by skinning his enemies and selling their hides, though she never touched the jewelry I made for her. I made bangles and rings that gods vould have been proud to vear! Made by one who loved her, yet they were never enough for her..._

_She sits in her chambers, combing her hair and singing his songs._

_Always in her chamber, vaiting for him._

_I have learned much of this vorld, of power and time, yet she vants nothing of my knowledge. She tells me that she vill send soldiers to find her lost love and bring him back to her. _

_I tell her that he is gone._

_She laughs at me._

_She tells me that she vill find vays to change the vorld, vays to make him stay vith her. _

_She sits in her chamber and sings her songs._

_I offer to take her out of her chamber, but she laughs at me again. She is happy there, smiling at her memories with her smiling soldier. _

_She is beautiful when she smiles in her chamber._

_I vould have liked to see her smile like that for years to come. _

_But you had to tear her from her chamber, didn't you? You had to vake her from her slumber, didn't you? You had to make her ugly and cruel, didn't you?_

_She vas happy there, you see? She smiled for him, but I could pretend that she vas smiling for me. _

_Now she is Queen. A Queen beyond any king that has ever been. _

_Now she knows things that I vould have never imagined. _

_I think that she knows now vat happened to her soldier. _

_I do not think she is pleased._

_The seas are veeping right now. Do you hear them? They know about her. They know the storm. They know Adel. _

_Better find very strong raft. Her storm will be likes of vhich this vorld has never seen. _

_-------------------------------------------------------_

Note: The 'seas after a storm' bit is from _The Princess Bride, _which is one of the greatest books ever written. Ultimecia is always given credit for being the big Sorceress bad-ass, but Adel is often ignored in fanfic land. Soooo, here is a very, very short Adel/slightly-obsessed Odine fic.


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